Deborah Thuman on thu 9 aug 07
Anyone - employee, employer, student, person walking by - can file a
complaint with OSHA.
At the clay classes I take at the university here, the first class of
the semester has a detailed lecture on safety issues. No matter how
many classes you take, you get the safety lecture. You want to mix
clay? You wear a mask. You want to mix glazes? You wear a mask.
The electric kilns are in a separate room, with concrete block walls,
and have a ventilating system. The kiln that costs more than my car has
it's own room and ventilating system. There are gas kilns and a raku
kiln outdoors as well. No one gets to load, unload, or fire any of the
kilns without proper instruction. Granted, the grad students are the
ones who do most of the work with the kilns - but if they go on to
teach, they know how to work with clay and kilns.
I buy commercial glazes. (Yes, I know - 87% of you think I should mix
my own - eventually, I will.) I am EXTREMELY careful about what glazes
I buy. I have to absolutely love a glaze that's not food safe before I
buy it. Then I permanently label the lid NFS so I don't make a mistake
when I'm glazing. If I'm considering selling it - it gets a food safe
glaze and I don't care what the piece is. Someone out there will put
food into or onto darned near anything I can figure out how to make.
Yes, I have anal retentive tendencies.
It takes so little effort to pick out food safe and lead free glazes.
Why on earth would any teacher subject students (not to mention the
teacher) to lead? By the by, in some jurisdictions (like the one in
which I live) child abuse is a hot political topic. I can envision a
teacher being charged with child abuse (one count for each student) for
using lead containing glazes and firing the pieces in a kiln w/o proper
ventilation AND getting convicted.
Deb
http://debthumansblog.blogspot.com/
sacredclay on fri 10 aug 07
When I was a studio manager for awhile at this center,the previous
manager had left some NFS glazes. I put them into a bucket and hid them
in my office. Why? I saw that the students were putting it on pieces
that could be functional and they said they won't use it for food.
However, a few years down the road, they won't remember it as they put
it in the pile for Goodwill. Anal retentive? You're not the only one,
sister! Ka5hryn Hughes in NC
> when I'm glazing. If I'm considering selling it - it gets a food safe
> glaze and I don't care what the piece is. Someone out there will put
> food into or onto darned near anything I can figure out how to make.
> Yes, I have anal retentive tendencies.
>
> >
> Deb
> http://debthumansblog.blogspot.com/
>
>
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